Week 5 Assignment 2 - Gaming Philosophy

In today’s 21^st century gaming is a great instructional approach used to engage learners. Through gaming students acquire the many essential skills that will help them succeed in the future. Over the past few years technology has evolved greatly and is continuing to change and influence the world we live in. Our students must be taught to identify, question, locate, evaluate and synthesize information. Being literate is more than being able to read, write and communicate appropriately. Information and communication technologies are what enable our students to obtain these important skills. Gaming is one such new media that should be integrated into the teaching and learning.

Using gaming in the classroom will not only motivate and provoke student’s interest but more importantly will train students to think deeply and more abstractly. Students will grow up as design thinkers; where they constantly analyze and think of solutions to problems. They will automatically take charge to their own learning and will collaborate to co-build on each other’s expertise. Students will be active producers using technology and not just read the technology.

There are many ways educators can incorporate gaming to enhance their instruction. Digital storytelling is one pedagogical approach that will engage learners in computational thinking. Scratch is a great programming tool that can be used for digital storytelling. Students get to create personally meaningful projects such as games, simulations, stories, greeting card design and more. Students can then share their project with family and friends for feedback. As one can infer gaming is very beneficial and allows for multiple learning opportunities. Educators must see to become familiar with the concept of gaming literacy and learn to effectively integrate gaming in their own classroom.